I allowed myself to sit in my apartment and mope after Dillon dropped me off, but after an evening of snuggling with Princess, watching This Is Us, and eating a pint of Chunky Monkey, I decided enough was enough.

I’d made a deal and stuck to it, time to move on.

So, rather than feel sorry for myself any longer, I decided it was time to put my plan into action.

Although, now that I was standing on my parents’ front porch, I found myself missing my earlier bravado. Now, I was terrified. What if they hated my ideas? What if they still thought I was flighty and foolish?

What if they said no?

I rolled my head back and tilted it from left to right, then stood straight and took a deep breath.

Then, I knocked.

Yes, I knocked. On my own parents’ front door.

People often found this to be very weird, but my parents and I did not have a come on in kind of relationship. When I was younger, I thought this was normal, then I spent time at Jazzy’s house and saw the way her family interacted with each other, and realized it was kind of sad. As I got older I just got used to it, so now, I knocked without even really thinking about it.

“Oh, Laurel,” my mother said when she opened the door and found me on the stoop. “Did you call and tell us you were coming by?”

I bit back a sigh, because, no, I hadn’t, and forced a smile.

“Uh, no actually, I realized it had been a while since we’d seen each other, and I have something to show you, so I thought I’d stop by.”

My mother forced a fake smile, then reluctantly stepped aside.

Wow, que the lack of warm fuzzies.

“Why aren’t you at work? Your father and I have lunch plans, so we can’t visit long,” she informed me as she shut the door.

There was really nothing to say that she would actually hear, so I followed silently behind her as she led me to my father’s office. When we walked inside, my father looked up from the paper he was reading and looked questioningly from my mother to me.

“Did we have an appointment?”

“No,” I replied, jeez. “Sorry, I just wanted to show you both the business plan for the shop. It is finished, and once I have your approval, ready for the bank.”

“Why aren’t you at the shop?” he asked.

“Mary and Lisa switched shifts because they have an event at school tonight. I plan on going in this afternoon.”

He raised an eyebrow, then shot a look I didn’t like to my mother, and held out his hand.

I realized I was clutching the folder to my chest as I took a couple steps toward his desk. Reluctantly, I peeled it away and placed it in his offered hand.

I tried not to shift from foot to foot as I watched him peruse the pages. My stomach was in knots and I felt slightly nauseous.

Two seconds later, he looked up at me and said, “No,” then slapped the folder shut and held it back out to me.

I blinked.

“What?” I asked, quietly. “But, you didn’t even read it.”

Seriously, he had it for like, two seconds.

“The answer is no, Laurel, but I’m pretty sure we told you that already,” my father said simply, then looked back down at his paper after my mother took the folder out of his hands.

I’d been dismissed.

“Tea?” my mother asked, holding the folder out to me.

I snatched the folder out of her hand and spun on my heel, stomping out of the office as I tried to wrap my head around what just happened.

I realized there was a song playing in my purse as I paused in the hallway to catch my breath, struggling to hold back tears. Without thinking, or looking at the screen, I grabbed my phone and pressed it to my ear.

“Hello?”

“Laurel? Are you okay?”

It was Dillon. I didn’t wonder why he was calling, all I knew was I felt utter relief that he was.

“They said no,” I muttered, losing the battle on the tears.

“Who said no? Where are you?”

“My parents,” I stated numbly, my head starting to pound as my dreams collapsed around me.

“I’m five minutes away,” he stated. “Don’t leave.”

He hung up, but I didn’t realize it. I stood there, holding the phone up to my ear as I wondered what I was going to do now. What was my plan B? Run the flower shop the way my parents always had? Or leave the flower shop, risking damage to my relationship with my parents and finding my own space to open my business?

Neither sounded great, although how much worse could our relationship really get.

“Really, Laurel, are you going to stand there all day, or come and have some tea before you leave?” my mother asked from behind me. Just then a loud pounding sounded on the door, causing her to ask, “What in the world?”

I followed her to the door, and when she opened it, we were both faced with a devastatingly handsome, but fuming, Dillon Lewis.

God, I’d missed him.